When I was a kid, Findlay was much smaller.

One housing area off of Bernard was a farm. I lived there until I was twelve years old. I can remember milking cows. My dad raised his own steers and we had chickens and pigs. My dad’s dad gave him a pig that was the runt of the litter. It turned around and had thirteen pigs. Pigs, cows, steers… we raised them all!

My dad did his own butchering. He butchered his own steers and hogs so we always had food on the table. My dad always made sure of. It’s one thing I always made sure of that my family, too.

I was very close to my dad. It was very hard on me when he passed away. I managed to pull everything together, but my sister’s got mad at me for the way I held up. But that’s the way it was. I was close to my sisters, too. But lately, I don’t get around very much to see them.

I had no brothers and three sisters. I have a set of twin sisters who are older and one younger sister. And there’s me, so there was just the four of us kids.

Our House

My dad took an old two-story house that sat along the river. It sat where the water treatment plant now sits here in friendly. Dad took the house and cut the top story off and set it on the ground.

We moved both sections took place on Scott Avenue here in Findlay. Then he joined both halves and we put a floor in. We added a garage two bedrooms and a front room. We turned it into a ranch house, and it is still standing! They re-roofed it not long ago.

Today it is the headquarters for the Headstart program. I lived in that house from the time I was twelve years old until I went into service.

There was one other house I helped my uncle build.